


I Never Wanted A Pony

by shewhoguards



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: Family, Gen, Kid Fic, ponies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21838219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shewhoguards/pseuds/shewhoguards
Summary: Eugenides saw no useful purpose in learning to ride. His family disagreed.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	I Never Wanted A Pony

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SunlitStone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlitStone/gifts).



“I’m not riding it.” To the disinterested observer the beast was a placid, rather elderly pony who seemed to have less interest in proceedings than the group of children surrounding it. From the look on eight year old Eugenides’ face however he was seeing a ravening beast.

“Eugenides.” Stenides spoke with deliberate patience. It was after all his family’s honour being impugned by his younger brother’s refusal. “It’s only about three feet off the ground. I’ve seen you scale walls three times that height without flinching.” He spread his hands, searching for an explanation. “You aren’t telling me you’ve picked now to develop a fear of falling?”

“Walls don’t trample you to death,” Eugenides muttered resentfully. “Or bite.”

The pony, blissfully unaware of its fearsome reputation, took a mouthful of hay.

“ _ You  _ bite,” Cleon pointed out. He smirked at Eugenides “The pair of you should get on.”

Under any other circumstances the circle of older children around the one younger might have been described as bullying. As Eugenides raised his head to glare at his older cousin however it felt more like safety in numbers. 

“You try making me get on it and you’ll  _ see  _ how well I bite,” he warned, baring his teeth pointedly. Cleon stepped back hastily. It felt foolish but he had a scar on his arm where Eugenides had demonstrated just that a year ago.

“Which is all very well, but the person who wants you up and riding is Father, and if you bite him you’ll hear about it,” Stenides said pointedly. The Minister of War had very little patience with his youngest son’s tantrums.

Eugenides stared at the pony. The pony continued to not do anything of interest. “Thieves don’t need to ride.”

Stenides attempted reason. “So, when you want to steal something that’s a long way away then what, you’re just going to walk for a few months?”

Eugenides shrugged. “There are carts. I could ride in a cart,” he suggested.

His brother closed his eyes for a moment as though to summon up patience. “Eugenides. You are the son of the brother of the King,” he enunciated carefully. “Horrible little beast though you may be at times, no-one is going to let you ride in a cart.”

“Well, it’s going to look a bit obvious if I go to steal something in a carriage,” Eugenides said logically. “People are going to notice.”

Someone sniggered, probably Cleon. Stenides gave up on trying to be reasonable. “Just get on the damn pony before I go and tell Father.”

Eugenides looked at the pony again and bit his lip, shifting from foot to foot in undisguised reluctance. “Don’t even know  _ how  _ to get on a stupid pony,” he muttered.

There was another snigger, and this time Stenides eyeballed the perpetrator. “Cleon. Get over here and show him how to mount,” he ordered sternly.

Cleon glowered, but Stenides was older and bigger and also close enough to grab him if he decided to get stubborn about it. Stenides had had time to work up a good head of steam about his younger brother’s impudence, he didn’t need it misdirected at him.

“It’s perfectly easy..” he said, directing a sneer in Eugenides’ direction as he fitted a foot in the stirrups and went to heave himself up. The pony’s head swivelled to look at him, the saddle slid sideways, and the cousins roared as Cleon landed on the straw with a thump.

It was the distraction Eugenides had needed. Practiced at darting away from well-deserved rage, he took advantage of the hilarity to dodge under his brother’s arm and was gone before anyone could react. Of course the saddle straps went with him. Really no-one should have expected anything less.

***

“You realise, you are going to have to ride one eventually,” Helen said, when she had finished laughing at the latest escapade.

Eugenides shrugged. Officially he was confined to his room for disobedience, However, as putting his room fifty feet up had proved no discouragement at all where climbing out of his window was concerned he instead chose to invade his cousin’s room and steal her breakfast.

“You could just order him to stop trying to make me,” he suggested instead. He offered her a winsome smile, “I could pay you in earrings.”

“I know your payments,” Helen pointed out. “You’ve already given me my own pair of emerald earrings back three times now.”

“Serves you right. If you didn't have such a ridiculous number of pairs then you might actually notice they were missing,” Eugenides retorted. “Next time I’ll leave them as an offering and I bet you don’t notice then either.”

“Next time I’ll  _ tell  _ your father when you’re hiding in my room, rather than pretending that the birds on the roof sound like footsteps,” Helen threatened in return. “And that’s not what I meant. Eventually you’re going to want to go far enough that your own two feet aren’t going to do the job.”

Eugenides turned to gaze out of Helen’s open window for a moment at the mountains in the distance. “Why would I ever want to leave Eddis?” he asked, sincerely confused. “I mean, the cousins are terrible, obviously, and Father’s fairly awful, but you’re not bad, all things considered.”

Helen laughed, but there was sadness in her smile. “Maybe because I can’t,” she suggested gently. “And maybe one day I might need someone I can trust who can.”

  
  
  


***

“Just so we understand each other, I don’t like you.”

The pony continued to chew hay. Eugenides glared at it. At fifteen he felt no more affection for the beasts than he had at eight.

“You’d be a lot more use if I could get a cart put behind you,” he muttered. Problem was that there was no way a cart was making it through the Eddisian mountains, at least not the route he planned on going. Even a horse would struggle. Only one of the small shaggy mountain ponies would do, nimble as a goat but stubborn as Eugenides himself.

“We’re going to go a long way together. I suggest we agree now that I dislike you and you dislike me but as long as you refrain from trying to eat me in my sleep we can view it as a truce.”

The pony stared at him as though considering this proposal and then tried to mouth at his buttons. Eugenides pushed its head away hastily. “Eating me while I am awake is also not allowed. God, I hate horses. Ponies. Whatever you are.”

It had been a lot more fun when he was protesting in front of witnesses. Tantruming at himself was no fun at all, and no-one else was there to appreciate his grumbles and moans as he reluctantly pulled itself onto the pony’s back. Certainly not Helen, who could only ever know about this trip is retrospect lest she felt obliged to forbid him from going.

It was going to be a long annoying ride to Sounis. The pony cared not at all that Eugenides complained every step of the way.


End file.
